A photographic material comprises on a support hydrophilic colloid layers containing hydrophobic, photographically useful compounds.
The hydrophobic, photographically useful compound includes, for example, coupler for forming image, colored coupler, development inhibitor-releasing coupler, discoloration inhibitor, antifoggant, ultraviolet absorbent, photographic dye and color mixing inhibitor. In general, the hydrophobic, photographically useful compound is incorporated into a silver halide photographic material by a method called the oil-protect method where the compound is dissolved in a high boiling point organic solvent and emulsified, a method where the compound is directly dispersed in the state of solid without any organic solvent, or a method where the hydrophobic, photographically useful compound is dissolved in an organic solvent miscible with water or in a basic aqueous solution and then precipitated and dispersed in water as fine particles as described in British Patent 1,193,349, RD No. 16468, U.S. Pat. No. 2,870,012 and European Patents 361,322 and 347,837.
In any of the above-described methods, the photographically useful compound must be dispersed as fine particles in a size less than 1 .mu.m to increase the surface area per unit weight of dispersed solid so that the expensive compound can effectively be used. However, it cannot evade the general fate of colloid dispersions such that the aging stability of dispersion is worsened as the particle number and the interfacial area increase, which gives rise to deterioration not only in quality in view of photographic performance but also in coating quality due to comet accompanying generation of coarse grains or crystallization of hydrophobic compound.
These problematic phenomena are particularly outstanding during storage of the above-described dispersions and when gelatin is contained therein, they may be caused during either storage at a temperature lower than the gelation temperature of the aqueous gelatin solution or storage at a temperature higher than the melting point of the gel. Accordingly, the aging time under control may be restricted or in some cases, an uneconomical situation is brought about such that the dispersion containing defects has to be discarded.